The great pandemic: a quick update

• First, the numbers. India recorded 161,386 new cases—and 1,733 deaths.
• A Danish study suggests that the ‘stealth’ subvariant of Omicron is “substantially more transmissible”—and more likely to infect vaccinated people, even those who have received booster shots.
• A US pre-print study suggests that mild cases of Omicron may offer very little immunity from future infections.
• The Beijing Olympics are in the midst of a big surge in cases among coaches and athletes—whose numbers are higher than others arriving in the city for the games: “The positive test rate of 2.9% for athletes and officials compared to 0.66% for Olympic ‘stakeholders,’ a group which includes workers and media, in the same period.”
• Here’s some good news. A new US study shows that there is zero evidence that Covid can spread from mother to child through breast milk. 
• This story might change your view of mild-mannered Canadians. Thousands of protesters rallying against vaccine mandates in Toronto urinated on the National War Memorial—and danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Pegasus snoopware: The latest update

The Wire interviewed Ronen Bergman, the New York Times journalist who wrote the paper’s investigation into the Israeli spyware—and also revealed that India bought it from Israel back in 2017. He confirms that the sale could not have gone through without approval from the highest echelons of the Israeli government. Also this: “There was a specific interest and specific emphasis from the Indian leadership to the Israeli leadership to obtain that specific license.” And this: 

“The fee for all Pegasus licenses comes with an upper ceiling for the number of phones that can be monitored simultaneously, and the Indian contract envisages concurrent attacks on up to 50 phones.”

The Wire has lots more details. Read the story here or watch the Zoom interview here. 

For more background: We did three big stories on Pegasus. One: the global media investigation that uncovered the snooping. Two: The Indian targets of this snooping. Three: A close look at the Israeli firm NSO that developed this snoopware. 

Westland Books shuts down

Amazon is shutting down the Indian publishing company—which has published everyone from Chetan Bhagat to Amish Tripathi and Devdutt Pattanaik. Amazon has not given any reason for its decision, merely saying it made a “difficult decision” after “a thorough review.” And it isn’t clear why Westland wasn’t put up on the market instead. Why this matters: As Scroll notes, Westland is a homegrown company unlike the likes of Penguin, Random House etc—and it makes money from its Indian titles, not imported books. (Scroll)

Speaking of big tech companies: Meta is adding 3D avatars to Instagram stories and DMs—and to Facebook and Messenger. This is a tiny step toward the Codec avatars first unveiled back in October (see the impressive demo below)—and, of course, the ambitious metaverse that Mark Zuckerberg plans to build. Before you get too excited, your 3D avatars across Meta’s platforms will look more like this. (The Verge)

Also shut down: Grindr which has been removed from the Apple App Store in China. The company pulled the gay dating app citing China’s new data privacy laws that limits personal information stored in apps—and requires government approval for data transferred outside of China. Expect this to happen to at least some apps in India as well—once the data privacy bill becomes law (explained here). (Bloomberg News)

Two big buys to note

One: New York Times has bought the wildly popular game Wordle for an undisclosed sum “in the low seven figures”—so somewhere north of $1 million. That’s pretty cool! Even cooler: NYT has promised to keep the game free and not move it behind a paywall. FYI: If you’re a Wordle addict, you can also try Word Master—over and over again since there is no limitation of one word/day. (New York Times)

Two: The gaming wars are getting fierce. Sony—which owns Playstation—just bought Bungie for $3.6 billion. Bungie is best known for its wildly successful Destiny and Halo games. The move is designed to counter Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Point to note: until 2007, Microsoft actually owned Bungie, which helped boost the popularity of its XBox. BBC News has more on the deal. The Verge looks at the past month of mega deals in the gaming world. 

Good news about tigers

A new World Wildlife Fund report reveals that their numbers are on the rise in Bhutan, Nepal, India, China and Russia. This is after the head count plummeted from 100,000 nearly a century ago. But tigers sadly are on the decline in Malaysia—and are thought to be extinct in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. More worryingly this: Tigers today are restricted to less than 5% of their historic range. WWF also released a stunning gallery of images to mark the report—and the beginning of the Chinese year of the tiger. See them over at Metro UK or The Guardian. Our fave is the one below taken in Bandhavgarh National Park.

Speaking of good enviro news: A new study has found that the number of tree species in the world is 14% higher than previously known. And 9,200 species are yet to be discovered—and are most likely located in South America. (Phys.org)

Rihanna’s marvelous baby bump

RiRi and her boyfriend A$AP Rocky are expecting their first child—a bit of news shared through fabulous photos that showcase her bejeweled tummy. Coming soon: A Fenty maternity line! New York Times says of this pregnancy photo shoot:

“The framing is carefully calculated in its pretend intimacy, both off-duty and on message. ‘Caught’ so that you get the sense you are getting a peek into a private moment, though in a way that has been entirely choreographed down to the vintage diamond signet ring on her finger.” 

The longest lightning flash 

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that a 768-kilometre-long (477.2 miles) bolt—that stretched across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi back in 2020—has broken the record for the world’s longest single lightning flash. Also setting a new record in 2020: A bolt that lasted 17.1 seconds over Uruguay and Argentina—which set a new record for duration. (Al Jazeera)

Four things to see 

One: The Fairfield public library in Virginia introduced a novel solution for parents who need to use their computers—but have young kids in tow. Unsurprisingly, this very cool and welcoming idea sparked a cranky debate over childcare. (Good Morning America)

Two: New images taken by the MeerKAT radio telescope offer an astonishing glimpse of the heart of the Milky Way—which shows up as the blood-red bits. The bright yellow spot in the middle is a black hole. (Popular Science)

Three: Wildlife photographer Dmitry Kokh found polar bears living in an abandoned weather station in Russia’s Wrangel Island—a Unesco-protected nature reserve in a region often called a “polar bear maternity ward.” Check out more of his photos in The Guardian.

Four: Aspiring authors should all learn from 8-year old Dillon Helbig who found an ingenious way to get his book out to the masses. He smuggled the hand-written, 81-page picture book—illustrated with colour pencils—into the shelves of the local library. This work of genius is now so wildly popular that there is a 55-person waiting list. Also: it looks adorable! (The Washington Post)